Yankee Tirade

Review of Mayflower by Parameters

The award winning author Nathaniel Philbrick has produced an epic tale of the Pilgrims perilous journey to North America, Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community, and War. It was all about religious freedom, a voyage on a tiny ship that ended at Plymouth Rock, and the support of friendly Indians—right? Wrong—Philbrick destroys those myths with his first few pages. His search for the “full truth” paints a story that is far more complex and morally ambiguous than the popular mythology Americans have come to embrace. Yes, there is a kernel of truth in many of the myths that historians and poets have perpetuated in the three centuries since the Mayflower landed, but Philbrick’s reality quickly redefines the essence of such tales. He does celebrate the courage and resourcefulness of these early settlers, spending a good deal of ink on the relationship between Pilgrims and the Indian tribes that populated New England. The author also highlights such events as the signing of the Mayflower Compact, penned during the crossing of the Atlantic; a document that would later provide the underpinning for America’s democratic system. Philbrick paints a picture of the Pilgrims as religious fundamentalists, in search of a form of Christianity unscathed by centuries of abuse. Pilgrims possessed by a religious fervor capable of suppressing any and all dissent and perpetrating unbelievable acts of violence against the Indian population. Perhaps, the most enlightening of Philbrick’s revelations are his descriptions of a war most Americans know nothing about, King Philip’s War. As settlements appeared ever further to the West, the Indians quickly realized the gravity of their situation. The result was the burning of Springfield in 1675, the spark that ignited this dreadful little war. Over eight percent of the males in Plymouth Colony would perish in the war. By way of comparison, less than one percent of America’s male population perished in World War II. If the reader wishes to maintain those cherished images of nattily-clad Pilgrims stepping onto Plymouth Rock, of Indians and Puritans setting down to tables of bounty at Thanksgiving, and Indian-Pilgrim cooperation in the establishment of settlements in the New World, this book is not for you. If, on the other hand, you want your history based on fact, this story of racial disharmony, violence, and an unrelenting search for religious identity and economic opportunity, this is what you are seeking.

Categories: Pilgrims

Christopher Hemmer on Iran

This Time

It has been a good trip to Boston this time around. I have someone close to me that has terminal cancer so I get to visit them as much as possible.

I had dinner with a Sherborn Town Historian one night. Betsy Johnson is an expert on history in the town and we exchange ideas from time to time. We are generally in agreement that Captain Moses Babcock’s Company of Cavalry was War of 1812 and not the Revolution as indicated in the 1974 Sherborn History Book. His grave is marked with a Revolution marker but this is a common mistake with 1812.

She asked me to describe the differences between the Continental Army and the Militia of that time.

1) The militia was paid for by the towns and not federally.

2) Militia officers were voted on by the men and in the Continental Army they were appointed by the Army.

3) Militia men were not in set enlistment contracts because all able bodied males were supposed to be in it. The Continental Army was for set period enlistments.

4) The militia could be drafted into the Continental Army and not the other way around.

I hope this helps.

Former National Lancers

Friday afternoon at the American Legion in Dover, Massachusetts I ran into a friend of mine who bartends there Jay Mchugh. He was a National Lancer in the mid 1970s and was there when they beat the Canadian Mounties in a drill competition.

We got into the topic of the National Lancers last year so he took me to meet Doc Zullo who mentored him in the Lancers in the 1970s. Doc was in the Ancient and Honorable Artillery as well and performed quite a few Revere and Dawes reenactments during his tenure.

Patriots Day 2008

I went to the parade in Concord on Patriots Day and to my surprise the National Guard did not have a group to march in the parade. The Naval Academy was there but not the local Guard unit. Having marched in the parade in 1987 as a 17 year old private in Company C 1-110th Armor I thought this is a sad state of affairs when the local Concord Guard unit no longer participates. The entire point of the National Guard is community involvement, if not that then it would be the Army Reserve.

Also while there the Concord Independent Battery was in the parade and one of the Horses was acting up and almost went into the crowd near the end of the course. This group has its own facility to store its equipment in the Town of Concord not to far from the Guard Armory.

I then went to Lexington to catch the Paul Revere reenactment by the National Lancers and talked with Mario DiCarlo the leader of that group. Mario is involved in Massachusetts politics and has a really good grasp of who is who in the state still at 87 years old. Mario was a Marine in the Pacific Campaign of World War II and donated free airtime on his New Hampshire radio station that he used to own to the Marine Corps.